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Strapped to the lunar module's ladder, the American flag was transported to the moon, protected from the 2,000-degree temperatures at touchdown by a steel-and- ThermoFlex casing. The flag itself was made of nylon and was purchased for $5.50 through a government-supply catalog. Yet the most difficult and daunting task of the whole mission, Armstrong later confessed, was putting that flag up on the moon.
Contrary to many geologists' conjecture, the moon's surface (at least in the Sea of Tranquility) was a thin sweep of dust covering dense, impenetrable rock. After pounding away at the task for much too long, Aldrin and Armstrong could get the flagpole sunk only a few inches deep, at best.
Both men were convinced that with billions of people watching live, they would step back from the flag only to see it topple over. Armstrong tried patting a mound of lunar soil at the base to stabilize it, but it remained so precariously un-right that he and Aldrin spent the rest of the moonwalk carefully avoiding the flagpole.
"We wanted the flag to suspend itself nicely, and we knew there's no atmosphere on the moon to speak of, so we sewed a hem in the top of the flag and made an aluminum flexible tube that slipped through the hem. You could take hold of it and pull it by hand until you extended the top out," as technical services department director Jack Kinzler described it. "When they started to deploy it, they saw the rippling effect if you left that extender slightly short. So they decided to take the picture that way. I'm glad. It [looks] more realistic, like it's fluttering in the wind."
When the broadcast showed the men's digging finally accomplished and Aldrin smartly saluting the flag, everyone at Mission Control cheered.
"To be able to salute that flag was one of the more humble yet proud experiences I've had," Aldrin said later. "To look at the American flag and know how much so many people had [done to] get it where it was … At that instant, we sensed this almost mystical identification with all the people in the world."
Meanwhile, geologists back home, watching Armstrong and Aldrin spend precious moments raising the flag, talking on the phone, and taking pictures, grew impatient. Selenologist Harold Urey finally erupted at the TV, "Hurry up and get those samples!" (The men eventually brought home over 40 pounds of lunar rock.)
The Mission
Whenever American astronauts return from space, they're asked, "So what was it like?" One reason most have little to say is that they work so hard.
"The awe and wonder is pushed into the background," Collins told a reporter. "There you are in the most incredible position. [Yet] my whole attention was riveted on the next job in line. Nothing would have been more pleasant than just to look."
Aldrin commented, "Our surface activity was limited to two hours and forty minutes; every minute was busy."
By the time Armstrong and Aldrin got back inside the lunar module, they had worked for over 22 hours. Desperate for sleep, they "cleaned up the cockpit and got things pretty well in shape," said Armstrong. "We planned to sleep with our helmets and gloves on. For one thing, it's a lot quieter." Armstrong took a hammock and slept for about three hours; Aldrin sprawled on the floor and slept for four.
Far above them in solo orbit, Collins got a very good sleep, indeed.
The Return
Back on earth, the astronauts felt the exhausting power of gravity. "Arms, which had floated before, now hung heavily and had to be willed to movement," said Aldrin.
After landing in the Pacific Ocean, Aldrin and Collins began a furious set of calisthenics during the helicopter ride to the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, where their quarantine trailer was waiting. (Armstrong did not join in.) The men began their three-week quarantine with a hot shower and a cold martini.
It had been, to NASA and the crew's everlasting credit, a mission as perfect as anyone had ever known. "To me, the marvel is that it all worked like clockwork," said Collins. "I almost said magic. There might be a little magic mixed in [there] somewhere."
During the splashdown into the Pacific, one Navy helicopter carried a television camera, whose signal was sent back to Houston and displayed on a giant screen. Next to the screen appeared these words: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961."
And next to that, eight years, one month, and twenty-nine days later, it said "Task accomplished, July 1969."
Today, Neil Armstrong, 78, lives in Ohio, Buzz Aldrin, 79, in California, and Michael Collins, 78, in Florida.
Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon, Copyright 2009 By Craig Nelson, is published at $27.95 by Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson St., New York, New York 10014
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